Care beyond the ‘golden hour’: 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne) tackles prolonged field care | The United States Army

As Special Operations Forces have shifted focus away from Afghanistan into austere, dispersed areas of the world, military medicine has been forced to adapt to emerging needs of SOF personnel.

Deployed in small teams throughout Africa, 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne) teams and their Navy, Marine and Coalition partners are far removed from the idyllic “golden hour” of emergency medical care. They often lack the capability to transport a trauma patient to a definitive level of medical care shortly after a patient sustains a severe injury.